Roughly a month after my review of Moonspell’sAlpha Noir I was finally able to purchase the special edition which contained the missing piece of the puzzle, the special edition only companion album Omega White. Why anyone would bother purchasing anything but this beautiful package I cannot say, but simply put the detail that went into this edition alone is breath taking and well worth your money. That aside however, it wasn’t the presentation that concerned me so much as the album itself, still feeling a bit underwhelmed by Alpha Noir, and with a mixture of trepidation and hope I played the album….and immediately felt a sense of relief and enthusiasm. This is the Moonspell that I was hoping for, that was mostly missing from Alpha Noir, and from there I was immersed into a fine addition to their discography.

First and foremost, as has been advertised, Omega White is the polar opposite of Alpha Noir in every way. Where that album was a sledge hammer seeking to bludgeon you into submission, Omega White is a scalpel that progressively removes layer upon layer of your defenses with somber atmospheres backed by subdued, yet ironclad riffs and soothing vocals (as opposed to the unrelenting harsh vocals of its twin) until all that remains is your beating heart, which it promptly grasps and threatens to squeeze. Lyrically Omega White is difficult to digest, in typical Moonspell fashion, yet the impression I got was that of something inherently dark and perhaps evil looking into a mirror and seeing its imperfect image surrounded by hints of what oddly appears to be hope. Despite the dark lyrical content (which dominates the majority of the album), there is more than one occasion where a lyric will pull you up from the melancholy, providing a sense of reprieve before plunging once again into the abyss. Some would simply call it dark romanticism (in the vein of bands like Cradle of Filth, but I feel it is more general than that, and far more open to interpretation.

The songs themselves are each unique, connected to each other only in slight ways. Opener White Omega is perhaps my least preferred on the album, with a chorus that simply does not draw me in like what follows, but still does a fine job of setting the mood. White Skies on the other hand throws an immediate hook at you, with a tight riff and excellent vocal structure that works very well. It is also worth mentioning that Type O Negative was a large influence for this album, even going so far as to have New Tears Eve dedicated to the late Peter Steele, and Omega White as a whole wears this proudly on its sleeve, to excellent effect. Fireseason is another stand out, using a slower pace and acoustic passages. New Tears Evedraws the most heavily from the Type O Negative playbook, with an almost playful melody that stands in contrast to the somber lyrics. It is also here that vocalist Fernando Ribeiro channels an intense Peter Steele element, with just the right amount of homage paid. Herodisiac picks up the pace considerably, and is by far the heaviest track. Incantatrix stands as the best track on the album, with a wonderful melody and Fernando’s finest vocal performance. Both Sacrificial and A Greater Darkness are fine tracks in their own right, bringing things to a fufilling close.

When compared to Alpha Noir, Omega White stands as the stronger album in my opinion, but a large part of that can be placed on the fact that it incorporates what I love most about Moonspell. The atmosphere that was lacking on the former can be found here in spades, and given time it will probably allow Alpha Noir to open itself to me even more. Still, I can’t help but wonder if a better album over all is hidden somewhere between the two, given how divisive it is of Moonspell's different elements, and I hope that in his next effort Fernando will return to the single album approach. None the less, Alpha Noir/Omega White is more than worthy of your time and money, and is yet another high mark in Moonspell's discography.